I hope this isn't getting old but now i'm looking at a b&w turnover ball set up with a companion fifthwheel hitch. has anyone installed there own, how was it to do?

 

I plan to install mine, tomorrow. Looks pretty straight forward, though.

 

It's a good hitch if you have a long bed. They do sell a model for a short bed, but, I think a slider is much better. The auto sliders were a little too pricey for me, so I went with a manual.

 

I did mine, and it was simple. You will need normal hand tools, torque wrench, and a 4" hole saw. (measure once, cut twice, or something like that?). You also have to cut a notch in the flange below where the bed floor and side join, so a recip saw would be handy, but it can be done by hand with a hacksaw blade.

I also took the extra step of deburing any holes/cuts with a die grinder and painting with gray primer, and I also used red high strength lock tite on everything.

If I were to do it over, I would assemble it the first time without lock tite, then after things have had a chance to settle in, locktite and retorque everything.

Edit: I would also suggest keeping the 4" cut out. That way you could weld it back in and have the bedliner touched up if you needed.

Also, they supply two U bolts with springs and nylock nuts for safety chain ancors for goose neck, but they say to use a supplied shorter U bolt and no springs for the passenger side of the Dodge because of clearance with the tailpipe. I found that if you cut the springs down and put them under the short U bolt, it still clears but also self retracts and doesn't rattle.


I believe the model is 1303R. You can get the instructions from:
http://www.turnoverball.com/downloads/index.htm

 

I've got a short bed and the B/W hitch works fine. No problem at all.

I really suggest having an experienced shop do it. They charged me a nominal amount to intsall the bolt on Hitch complete with a metal trailer plug in the bed. The only time I looked over their shoulder was when they cut that bed receiver hole. Couldn't help myself.

 

did mine myself. it is easy to do, but a lift and some jacks would be easier, or even a helper as i did mine alone. take your time measure thrice and then measure again and then cut the hole. it really is no problem.

tim

 

I did mine myself as well. It was kind of a chore alone to hold the center section up and try to insert hardware under the truck. I suggest using a helper if possible, if not be prepared with a jack or ratchet (spelling?) straps or something. Drilling the holes for the right side safety chain bracket is impossible from underneath the truck unless you have some kind of magic drill because of the exhaust pipe. This makes you use your head to measure and drill the proper holes from the top or remove the tailpipe (yikes for me). All in all it worked out good in the end but probably took a little longer than expected. As an FYI, I was able to use the standard supplied U-bolts for the safety chain hangers on my truck without hitting the tail-pipe. They did not supply a shorter bolt.

Josh

 

thanks for the replies, I called b&w this morning and it is on it's way so i have 3or4 days to get up the nerve for the 4" holesaw

 

Finally installed my hitch last night. Right at 3.5 hrs to complete the whole thing. That included the normal installation plus: painting the hitch flat black, removing the DC bedliner and tonneau cover, measuring for the hole a dozen times, making a board to help stabilize the saw, deburring the hole, priming and painting the bare metal (patriot blue). The instructions are easy to follow. The only trouble I had was getting the wiring harness clip loose on the driver's side frame rail. I will tell you, I was an absolute nervous wreck about cutting the hole. I almost felt bad for my truck. It was like I was hurting it or something . Good luck on your install.

 

Well my hitch came last week and I installed it yesterday and like others have said , it went really well and I would recommend it. The instructions were short but more than adequate to do it. (I also measured a dozen times but with 2 different tape measures ). It goes in wednesday for the sprayed in bedliner so I hope to post a pic after that.

 

I hope you have a long bed, the hitch connects to your truck 6" in front of the rear axle. Manurafacturer says 2" to 6". need every inch in a short bed. hope it works out for you

 

placement of the hitch is great, spread the weight to the front axel very well. companion hitch works well also, just have to be a little choosy about trailer choices. i bought hitch for my equiopment trailer and liked so much i bought the companion and then a fiver.

tim

 

I just installed a turnover in mine. Took just at 3 hours. One tip - I put a 2X4 across the bed (with towels between it and the paint!) and used a ratchet strap to hold the center section up while I assembled everything underneath. You can't get a torque wrench on a couple of the bolts, so I tightened as good as I could. One other thing, I drilled small pilot holes for the u bolt over the exhaust pipe and then drilled down from the bed. You can't get a drill with a 1/2" bit under there to drill from the bottom.

The hitch and hardware are first class, the only probem I had was one of the frame u-bolts was open about 1/8" making it hard to get into the holes on one side bracket. A quick swat with a BFH took care of that! Also, they should paint the parts black from the factory instead of battleship grey.

Bud